WATSIDE WEEDS. 25 



to US all from childlioodj and meet us in every 

 country walk. We must now say adieu, and look to 

 the rest of our Handful. 



Take another look at the poppies. You could 

 not mistake a poppy, putting colour out of the 

 question, for a buttercup. The petals composing 

 the corolla are separate; it is true the stamens are 

 numerous, and both are attached to the flower in 

 the same manner as in the ranunculus, but here the 

 resemblance ends. The calyx, as we have seen 

 (Fig. 20), is entirely different, both ia its divisions 

 and in its development, and the round central pistil, 

 in one piece, of the poppy (Pig. 6) is abundantly 

 diverse from the many pistils of the ranunculus 

 (Fig. 4) . There are many other distinctions, which 

 at present we are not prepared for. 



We go to the wallflower (Fig. 7), the watercress, 

 or the charlock (Fig. 16), all plants of the same 

 great botanical section as the ranunculus and the 

 poppy; that is to say, they have many-petaled 

 flowers, and petals and stamens (Fig. 14) are simi- 

 larly attached;' but how different are they other- 

 wise. The petals are clawed (Fig. 8), the stamens 

 are definite in number, not many, and the central 

 pistil is altogether dissimilar, as we may see more 

 clearly if we examine any of these plants when the 

 seed is well matured. Now, the wallflower, the water- 

 cress, the wild mustard, and maily others similar, 

 belong to a most important family, called the Cruci- 



